Emmons 8-7+8

[AJScott]

Had a great time on the Emmons route this last Sunday. A half a foot of fresh snow made for spectacular views, and a richer experience. Mark and Michelle hiked into the meadows friday night and spent the night in the rain and got soaked. I showed up early sat. and we hung around there camp and let gear dry out. They were skeptical about the weather, but it cleared while on the inter glacier.

 

We shared the flats with one other party, and I had my first bivy on Rainier.

 

 

Is there a good way to straighten shots like this? I hate it when I have the horizon all crooked.

 

We were woke by the first party going by at 12:30! We decided to let a couple parties get in front of us to take out the guess work of the route finding with the fresh snow and all. We got going at 2:30 with 8-9 teams ahead of us. It was a faWking zoo up there. Mt Rainier is the closest thing Washington has to a Disneyland. We started to pass parties at the top of the corridor, and ended up being the first party from the emmons on the summit.

 

Sunrise

 

 

We felt a little bad because the team that broke trail the whole way took a really long traverse around the upper schund, and we took a way more direct route over two crossing that gained us a good 45 mins. Only one other party followed us, we used 1 picket on each crossing for a running belay.

 

Final few feet to the top!

 

 

It was Mark and Michelle's first summit of Rainier, and now they only have Glacier peak left, and they will have all of the volcanoes for the summer. nice job guys! Michelle is one tough chicka. The route is in excellent shape right now! The fresh snow really cleaned the place up.

[catbirdseat]

Cool. Enough snow to clean things up, but not hide the crevasses.

[russellp]

Nice TR good to meet yoou guys

[wally]

fresh snow, clear skies, who could ask for more?